Mexico is still enforcing a zero-soil-tolerance law on imported U.S. dry beans, which continues to make it harder for Mexican consumers to buy them, says Judd Keller, a Scottsbluff, Neb.-based bean trader with Kelly Bean Co.

The bigger concern is that high prices appear to be cutting into Mexican consumption of dry beans, Keller says. The company has a number of locations across the country, including in North Dakota and Minnesota.

Earlier this summer, Keller and others involved in the export of U.S. dry beans told Agweek that Mexico had stepped up enforcement of a law that allowed its officials to stop, at the border, imported dry beans on which any soil or trace of soil was found. Mexico then allowed the dry beans into the country for recleaning, the cost of which added slightly to their price.